Once upon a time, a long time ago, I worked in an organisation that a year previously had been part of the Civil Service and still had the systems legacy (mostly paper) and people trained in that way of working.
A few years later, my advice was being sought on IT matters because I understood how the work was done and what was essential; had managed to amalgamate some admin processes from different offices and make them less cumbersome. I also had enough understanding of how computers worked to see out how they could be used well in our work (and had started making prototypes of information systems) and enough understanding of computers to talk to the programmer. Understanding what my colleagues could or might not be able to do on computers — and it was important to me that others could use new systems because I was the one they’d ask if they couldn’t do things.
There will still be people like me elsewhere. People who understand both sides so can help with understanding and designing, and in ways that don’t completely disrupt the work. Find those people — they will speed up the process and help produce the most appropriate system.
